Tag: Jeff Bridges

Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is a rebellious 17-year-old who is forced to return to the regimented world of gymnastics after a run-in with the law. A judge sentences Haley to her ultimate nightmare, attending an elite gymnastics academy run by legendary coach Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges).

Haley was once considered one of the most talented gymnasts in the US. She made it to the World Championships, but she walked out of competition in the middle of the finals, costing the American team the gold medal and leaving many people hurt and crushed making her one of the most hated people in gymnastics

Haley has a talk with Coach Vickerman, who convinces her to take up the sport once againâ€”at least until she can enter an upcoming invitational competition. Vickerman convinces her that she can use the prize money from the competition to repay some property damage debts she still owes and leave gymnastics once and for all. Disliking the sport’s rigid rules and intense training schedule, Haley is reluctant to come out of retirement. Her attitude toward her fellow gymnastsâ€”as well as her pastâ€”causes conflicts. After getting the cold shoulder the first day at the gym, Haley realizes what she is up against.

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What started out as a gymnastics competition turns into a small revolution for the rules and Haley. Her talents are recognized once more and her future seems to be set with numerous colleges offering her athletic scholarships to compete in NCAA gymnastics.

Kevin Flynn is a young and gifted software engineer who works for the software corporation ENCOM, creating several video games on the company’s mainframe after hours, aiming to start his own game company. However, an ambitious ENCOM programmer named Ed Dillinger locks Flynn out of the system and presents Flynn’s work as his own. Dillinger earns himself a series of executive promotions, while Flynn (canned by Dillinger) is relegated to opening a video game arcade, featuring the games that he created. From then to the present, Flynn tries to hack into the ENCOM mainframe to find evidence of Dillinger’s wrongdoing, but his program, Clu, is caught and erased by the Master Control Program (MCP).

The MCP, with Dillinger’s authorization, shuts down access to the security group Flynn is using, inadvertently locking out another ENCOM employee, Alan Bradley. Alan goes to speak to Dillinger and reveals that he was working on a security program, Tron, which would monitor communications between the MCP and the outside world. After Alan leaves, the MCP confronts Dillinger about this, stating that it cannot afford to have programs monitoring it. It reveals its intention to break into the Pentagon and other military mainframes, claiming it can run things “900 to 1200 times better than any human.” When Dillinger attempts to assert his authority, the MCP essentially blackmails him into complying with its wishes.

…

Dillinger comes into work the next morning to find the MCP non-functional and the same evidence displayed on his screen. He’s almost relieved not to be a blackmail victim anymore, but it’s only a matter of time before ENCOM fires him. Flynn later becomes the new CEO of ENCOM.

The film follows Ann Arbor Daily Telegram reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), who stumbles onto the story of a lifetime when he meets a Special Forces operator, Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) after flying to Kuwait out of anger, due to a recent divorce with his wife, who then proceeded to marry Bob’s one-armed editor. Lyn reveals that he was part of an American army unit training psychic spies (or “Jedi Knights”), trained to develop a range of parapsychological skills including; invisibility, remote viewing, cloud bursting, walking through walls, and intuition.

The founder of this unit Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) travelled across America in the 1970s for six years exploring a range of New Age movements (including the Human potential movement) after getting shot during the Vietnam War and used these experiences to found the New Earth Army. In the 1980s, two of Django’s best recruits were Lyn Cassady and Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) developed a lifelong rivalry because of their opposing views of how to implement the First Earth philosophy, Lyn wanted to emphasise the positive side of the teachings, whereas Larry was more interested in the dark side of the philosophy.

In present day Bob and Lyn embark on a new mission in Iraq, where they are kidnapped by a criminal gang, when they escape with fellow kidnap victim Mahmud Daash (Waleed Zuaiter) and join forces with a private security firm in Iraq headed up by Todd Nixon (Robert Patrick), they are caught up in a firefight between Todd’s security firm, and a rival security firm; this would later be known as the “Battle of Ramadi.” Mahmud helps rescue Bob and Lyn, and takes him back to his house which has been shot up by soldiers. From there Bob and Lyn proceed to continue with their mission: to locate New Earth Army founder Bill Django.

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Bob returns to work as a reporter and writes an article about his entire experience with Lyn. However, the only portion of the story to be aired on the news is how music the captives were forced to watch Barney & Friends nonstop. However, Bob still vows to get the story out.

The film centers on three men, Red Pollard, Charles S. Howard, and Tom Smith who come together as, respectively, the principle jockey, owner, and trainer of championship horse, Seabiscuit. The story follows the redemption of the three men as they rise from troubled times to achieve fame and success through their association with the horse. Red Pollard was the child of wealthy family which was ruined by the Great Depression. In need of money, the family leaves Red with a horse groom. Eventually becoming a jockey, Red makes extra money through illegal boxing matches, which leave him almost blind in one eye. Charles Howard is shown as a clerk in a bicycle shop when he gets asked by a passing motorist to repair his automobile, a technology which has recently been introduced. Some years later, Howard is the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area’s richest men. However, his life takes a turn for the worse when his son accidentally dies while trying to drive the family car. When Howard is unable to come out of his depression, his wife leaves him. On a trip to Mexico in order to obtain a divorce and to drown his sorrows, he meets Marcela whom he falls in love with and marries. Howard then runs into Tom Smith, a horse trainer who has been living as a homeless during the depression. Seeing Smith tame an aggressive horse, Howard hires him to take care of his newly acquired stable of horses. Later, Smith tries to get a jockey to ride Seabiscuit, but the jockey is frightened off when Seabiscuit rips off a bit of his shirt. Smith then turns to see Red Pollard fighting with other stable boys and see in them similar temperament. Thus, he decides to make him the jockey. The film then follows the three men as they begin to race Seabiscuit. It especially focuses on their efforts to provoke a race with War Admiral, the top race horse in the country. A match race is then decided on the 1st of November at Pimlico racetrack. While they wait for the date to come around and train Seabiscuit, Pollard is asked to exercise a race horse for an old friend. While they are on the track, two of War Admiral’s owner’s men start a tractor suddenly, causing the horse to spook. The horse rears, and Pollard falls off and is dragged along until he crashes into a wall, fracturing his leg. When the doctor reports that he will be unable to jockey again, Red tells Howard to get George Woolf as the jockey. Red then teaches George about Seabiscuit’s handling and mannerisms. Seabiscuit beats War Admiral easily because of a secret that Pollard told George Woolf, which was to hold him head to head with the other horse so he gets ‘a good look at the Admiral’. Afterwards, Seabiscuit is entered in a race at the Santa Anita Race track under George Woolf. While he is racing he gets injured and has to stop. Red Pollard helps him to recover and gets him fit again for racing. The last race is again at the Santa Anita track, and Red Pollard races him this time after putting a special self-made brace on his own leg to keep it stable. George Woolf is also racing, albeit on a difference horse. When Seabiscuit drops to last place and trails the pack of horses, George Woolf trails back to be with Pollard.After a short conversation, Seabiscuit gives Pollard the signal that he is ready to go. Seabiscuit then surges towards the pack of horses and Pollard steers him through them to win the race. The movie ends with Pollard narrating “You know everyone thinks that we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn’t, he fixed us, everyone of us, and I guess in a way we kinda fixed each other too.”

Billy Tully (Keach), is a boxer who is alcoholic and way past his prime, and trying to make a comeback with the help of his manager and trainer Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto). He has a brief affair with a drunken barfly, Oma (Tyrrell), and moves in with her, working odd jobs to makes ends meet.

A young fighter, Ernie Munger (Bridges), takes Tully’s advice to join Ruben’s gym and make something of himself. He loses his first fight, but perseveres.

Learning the lesson that “winning is not as easy as it sounds,” Ernie is determined to get what he can out of boxing and, unlike Tully, not let setbacks get the best of him.

Tully narrowly wins a tough fight against a Mexican boxer, but is discouraged to learn that he gets almost no winnings.

The movie ends with Ernie accidentally running into Tully, who is now a panhandling derelict and apparently brain damaged from his fighting career.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People tracks the escapade of Sidney Young (Simon Pegg), a smalltime, bumbling, aspiring British celebrity journalist who is hired by an upscale magazine in New York City. He tries to enter a party with a pig, pretending it is the pig of a sequel of the film Babe, but is refused. He locks it in his hotel room and goes to the afterparty, but when the room is serviced the pig escapes to the party where it runs rampant. Due to this incident Sidney catches the attention of Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), editor of Sharps magazine, and accepts a job with the magazine in New York City. Clayton warns Sidney that he’d better charm everyone he can, if he wants to succeed. Instead, Sidney instantly insults and annoys fellow writer Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst). He dares to target the star clients of power publicist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson). He upsets his direct boss Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston), and tries to make amends by hiring a stripper (Charlotte Devaney) to dance for Lawrence during a staff meeting. Sidney, of course, doesn’t stop there, finding creative ways to annoy nearly everyone. His saving grace: a rising model Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) who develops an odd affection for him, and in time, Alison’s friendship might be the only thing saving Sidney from torpedoing his career.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gambles at a Las Vegas casino, leaving his deceased father’s friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), to accept a prestigious award for him. As Stark leaves the casino with his entourage, he is approached by reporter Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb), whom he charms into a one-night stand at his Malibu house. When she awakens the next morning, Stark is gone and she is coldly greeted by Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), his personal assistant.

Stark flies off to war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and company military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard), for a demonstration of Stark Industries’ new weapon, the “Jericho” cluster missile. On the way back, however, his military convoy is attacked. In the firefight, his escort is wiped out and Stark himself is knocked unconscious by one of his own company’s bombs.

Waking up in an Afghan cave, he discovers an electromagnet embedded in his chest, placed there by fellow captive Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub). Powered by a car battery, it keeps shrapnel from working its way to his heart and killing him. Stark has been captured by a terrorist group known as the Ten Rings, whose leader orders him to build a Jericho missile for him.

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In a post-credits scene, Stark is visited by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who notes that Stark is not “the only superhero in the world” and states he wants to discuss the “Avenger Initiative”.

The film begins with a short voiceover introduction by an unnamed narrator (by Sam Elliott) introducing the character of Jeffrey Lebowski as he is buying half and half from a grocery store in 1991. The voiceover explains that Lebowski calls himself “the Dude”.

After returning to his apartment in Venice, California, two thugs break in and rough up The Dude. They are attempting to collect a debt Lebowski’s supposed wife owes to a man named Jackie Treehorn. After realizing they were looking for a different person with the same name, they leave, but only after one of the thugs urinates on the Dude’s rug. At the instigation of his friend and bowling teammate Walter Sobchak (Goodman), the Dude decides to seek compensation for his urine-soaked rug from the other Jeffrey Lebowski. The next day, the titular “Big” Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, gruffly refuses the Dude’s request. After craftily stealing one of the Big Lebowski’s rugs, the Dude meets Bunny Lebowski, the Big Lebowski’s nymphomaniacal trophy wife on his way off the property.

Days later, the Big Lebowski contacts the Dude, revealing that Bunny has been kidnapped. He asks him to act as a courier for the million-dollar ransom because the Dude will be able to confirm or deny their suspicion that the kidnappers are the rug-soiling thugs. Back at his apartment, the Dude naps on his new, stolen rug, only to have a new set of criminals burgle his apartment. The criminals knock him unconscious. Following a musical dream sequence, the Dude wakes up on his bare wooden floor, his new rug missing. Soon after, when Bunny’s kidnappers call to arrange the ransom exchange, Walter tries to convince the Dude to keep the money and give the kidnappers a “ringer” suitcase filled with dirty underwear. The Dude rejects this plan, but cannot stop Walter. The kidnappers escape with the ringer, and the Dude and Walter are left with the million-dollar ransom. Walter seems unperturbed by this turn of events, and takes the Dude bowling. Later that night, the Dude’s car is stolen, along with the briefcase filled with money. The Dude receives a message from the Big Lebowski’s daughter, Maude. She admits to stealing back the Dude’s new, stolen rug, as it had sentimental value to her. At her art studio, she explains that Bunny is a porn starlet working under producer Jackie Treehorn and confirms the Dude’s suspicion that Bunny probably kidnapped herself. She asks the Dude to recover the ransom, as it was illegally withdrawn by her father from a family-run charitable foundation for orphans. She offers him a finder’s fee in exchange for his services.

…

After a disagreement with the funeral home director over the cost of an urn for Donny, Walter and the Dude go to a cliff overlooking a beach to scatter Donny’s ashes from a large Folgers coffee can. Before opening the can’s lid and haphazardly shaking out Donny’s remains into the wind, Walter remembers what little he knew about Donnie, including that he loved to surf and bowl, then quotes a line from Hamlet: “Goodnight, sweet prince.” After an emotional exchange, Walter suggests, “Fuck it, man. Let’s go bowling.” The movie ends with the Dude in the bowling alley and meeting the narrator at the bar. The narrator tells the Dude to take it easy and the Dude responds by stating, “the Dude abides”. The narrator briefly comments on the film to the audience, saying that although he “didn’t like to see Donny go”, he hints that there’s a “little Lebowski on the way.” The film transitions to the closing credits as Townes Van Zandt’s version of “Dead Flowers” plays.